Friday, June 25, 2010

Last Things.

Gearry and I got up at a reasonable hour this morning so that we could enjoy breakfast at his favorite Bloomington haunt, The Runcible Spoon, one last time before he heads out bright and early on Monday. We have a wedding to attend in South Bend on Saturday and won't be home until Sunday, so this morning was kind of our last chance. The weather was gorgeous, warm with a light breeze, perfectly comfortable for sitting outside and drinking coffee and chatting and eating way too much yummy food. Unfortunately, the owner, Matt, who Gearry is good friends with, is in Ireland at the moment, so he didn't get to tell him "bye" which was a little disappointing, but that just means we'll have to come back and eat again on one of our visits back to Indiana :)


Gearry finished packing today, minus his clothes, and we'll be loading his car down on Sunday evening. It's going to be quite a puzzle... A clown car would come in handy about now. We've had a good but busy day. We dropped the dogs off at Mom & Dad's today since we're headed out of town tomorrow morning for the wedding, conveniently detailing the inside of Gearry's car while we were there, and tonight we're meeting Gearry's parents for dinner in B-Town.

I have lots of mixed feelings about everything.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Bliss.



Went out on the boat with Mom & Dad for the last time (at least this summer) and had an incredible day. I think some pictures will sum it up nicely.





Monday, June 21, 2010

Whirlwind

Gearry's last couple of weeks here in Indiana are flying by in a whirlwind of activities, events, get-togethers, and must-do's that has me in disbelief that it is already June 21st. A few brief updates:

- On Saturday, June 12th, we had a going-away cookout for Gearry at Lake Monroe. It was so wonderful to have almost all of my loved ones in the same place at the same time and made us feel very good to know how much we are loved. Thanks to my mom and Gearry's mom, we had tons of delicious food and a very great -- albeit very hot -- evening.




- The next day, on Sunday, June 13th, I participated in my second Hoosierman, a triathlon that takes place at Fairfax Beach at Lake Monroe. I definitely had not trained as hard as I did last year, between working at school and some knee issues that had my doctor telling me not run for two weeks before the triathlon, so I was a little apprehensive, but it was definitely a fun time. I had barely trained on the swimming leg, so I was super slow, but I had a pretty decent bike and I just tried to hang in there for the run. It definitely didn't take me as long to recover as it has from triathlons in the past, so I think I have done a good job of building a pretty solid endurance base with things like the half-marathon. I am looking forward to doing some new triathlons in the Savannah area, including one that I am aiming for on Jekyll Island in October. A whole album of pictures from the Hoosierman is posted on my facebook, but here are a couple of them:



- On Saturday evening, June 19th, as Gearry and I were getting ready for a double date with our friends Catherine and Brian at the Taste of Bloomington event, Bailey gave us quite a scare. He started throwing up, which wasn't a big deal, but he proceeded to throw up 6 or 7 times within a 15 minute period. We had him sitting in the bathtub because he was throwing up so much. We were trying to comfort him when he started shaking violently. He tried to climb out of the bathtub and collapsed. As he tried to get up and make his way to the door, his eyes were very glassy and his limbs kept collapsing underneath him. If you've ever seen someone who's body is shutting down at the end of an Ironman or a marathon, that's exactly what he looked like. It was terrifying and, later, as Gearry and I discussed it, we both admitted that we thought he was going to die right there on our bedroom floor. Needless to say, my puppy-mommy-instincts kicked in and I grabbed him and we ran for the car. Because it was Saturday, no vets in Bloomington were open, so we had to hightail it to the emergency vet in Indianapolis. That was a very scary hour in the car, followed by a very scary hour and a half waiting to find out what was wrong. Thankfully, the vet had good news. The "seizing" and passing out was a side effect from the throwing up. When you throw up that many times, it can activate a nerve in the body that causes you to lose consciousness. The cause of throwing up that much is still a mystery, but he was a little dehydrated and had not eaten all day, so they think that played a part. He had every diagnostic test you can imagine run on him (seriously, $800 worth) and he is perfectly healthy. They wanted to keep him for 24 hours to keep an eye on him, make sure he was eating and drinking, give him some IV fluids, etc., so we finally got him back around 11:00 p.m. on Sunday evening. I've never been more happy to cuddle with my little guy last night.

- In other puppy related news, after much debate, we have decided that Gearry is going to take the puppies with him next Monday when he moves to Savannah. Originally the plan was for them to stay and move with me at the end of July/beginning of August, but because my job at camp is requiring many, many more hours than we had anticipated and I would be home far less each day than Gearry will be, we decided it was best for the dogs if they went with him. It's not fair to them to be stuck in a crate for 14 hours a day with only a couple of quick walks from the dog walker. I'm very sad at the prospect of not only not having Gearry for a month but also Bailey and Zoey, but I know it is what is best for them, and I know they will also help keep Gearry company while he is alone for that month. So, we ordered a travel crate and I'm doing lots of petting and hugging and spoiling while I can.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Exhaustion.

Started my summer job at camp this week. Let's just say it is not exactly what I expected, but I'm going to try to make the best of it. Totally and utterly exhausted. Fortunately, we do not have a camp next week and it will be Gearry's last week in Indiana as well, so at least that works out as far as spending some quality time together before the month apart.

Bed. Now.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Changes

Life seems like one big change right now, which is a little exhilirating and a little scary at the same time. Even just sitting in my living room today, doing absolutely nothing except watching "Family Guy" and cuddling with the puppies, I realized that in just a couple of months I won't be able to ever do that again. I mean, there will be tons more "Family Guy" and puppy cuddling sessions, but they won't be in this living room, because it will no longer be our living room. Those times will be 700 miles away. I keep going back and forth between wanting to enjoy every last minute here and feeling uncomfortable being here now all seems so temporary, so unsettled. I think I liked settled. Then again, it seems every time "settled" comes around we get the urge to make a change, so perhaps I'm not as much of a "settled" person as I think.

Either way, I'm committed to eeking out every ounce of fun, relaxation, and good times that this summer can bring and have one last fantastic Indiana summer to remember (for now, as we never know what the future holds). The summer is looking a whole lot brighter after Gearry found out yesterday that instead of starting at CIS on June 18th, his new start date is July 1st (to coincide with the start of the school's fiscal year). Therefore, since today is his last day at the resort, that means three whole weeks of Gearry! It will be the most I've seen him... probably ever. We already have a list of all the things we want to do before he goes... Drive-in theatre, lots of lake & boating time, lazy days at the clubhouse cabana bar, dinner at Story Inn, etc., etc. I hope that three weeks together will make the month we'll be apart a little easier to handle. I start my summer job at camp on Monday, so I'm going to be working quite a bit these next few weeks, but it's nice to know that when I come home at the end of the day he'll actually be here.

A lot of people keep asking me what my plans are for Savannah. I am hoping, praying, and keeping my fingers crossed for a teaching or teaching assistant position and have started sending out some resumes. Like the public school system here, the Savannah-Chatham system is in dire financial trouble, with something crazy like a $35 million budget cut. That makes things a little challenging, but since it is such a big system, they are still hiring a few positions and I have applied for those. There is also a HUGE private school system (one of the largest numbers of private schools in a city that size in the U.S.) and they hire a position here and there, so I'm keeping my eyes peeled. Most hiring will likely be done in the couple of weeks (or even couple of days) leading up to the start of the school year, so I unfortunately have to be very patient. If the beginning of the school year comes and goes and I am still jobless, then I will subsitute or tutor or both, whatever I need to do to get my name out there. I would be completely fine with serving for another year as a teaching assistant, so I'm hoping that if a full-classroom job doesn't pan out, a paraprofessional or some sort of assistant job will. I just want to be in a school, doing what I love.

I'm learning more and more about the area we're going to be living in through internet research, talking to people who live there, travel forums, etc. Our neighborhood, Talahi Island, is a small island between two larger islands, Whitemarsh Island and Wilmington Island. This world of "island suburbia" is halfway between downtown Savannah and the beach. The islands are highly residential, although they do have their own restaurants, shops, etc. From where we are living on Talahi Island, we can access an 8-mile bike path that leads all the way out to Tybee Island and beach life, which is pretty cool. I should have no problem staying in shape there! We also learned that Tybee has a very strict no-dogs-on-the-beach policy, so if we want to take Bailey and Zoey for some beach strolls we'll have to do it at Hilton Head (just to the north) or one of the several beach areas to the south. We also learned a little bit more about our "duplex" we are renting for four months. Actually, it's not a duplex at all. It's an attached guest house/mother-in-law-suite of a large home on the island. So I guess technically it really is a duplex, but not in the traditional sense. The house looks really nice and we're happy to have found a place in what seems to be such a nice neighborhood.

Let's see, what else have we learned? Oh yes, I discovered today that even though it is the south and when I think of southern cooking I think of meat, meat grease, and gravy, Savannah has quite a few restaurants downtown with vegetarian options, mostly because it is home to SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design) and you gotta cater to those hippie vegetarian art students :)

A woman who I have been communicating with via e-mail who is from Boston but owns a home in Savannah and spends as much of her time there as possible, with intentions to retire there in the next few years, has been giving me lots of wonderful insights on the culture of the place. I asked her about the attitude toward northerners who move in there and she offered this: "It is quite a cosmopolitan small city. So many 'Yankees' have moved in that a lot of the 'old south' of the place is gone. We are ALL over the place so its not a novelty being a Yankee. There are great people and there are jerks everywhere, so once you ignore the accents, we are all the same."

Alright, so if I can only get past the accents...